


got my friends

by Marvelgeek42



Series: WIPs I *should* finish before I start new works [11]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Slow To Update, communication is key
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:09:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8977210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelgeek42/pseuds/Marvelgeek42
Summary: "Hello Harry Potter. The Gurgling Hunkifings were telling me that you looked sad, so I came to tell you that I don't think you could ever do something this horrible."





	1. i got my friends

The first time Harry Potter met Luna Lovegood was not on the Hogwarts train before his fifth year, oh no, it was right in the middle of his second one.

Mere days had passed since the incident in the Duelling Club—if it could even be called that—and a good part of the school was once again avoiding him like the plague.

Only the Weasleys, Hermione, and Neville stood by him. Okay, there were a few more, like that Hufflepuff that usually seemed to be more of the quiet sort but defended Harry on at least seven different accounts—he knew, because he had counted—or that dark skinned Slytherin seventh year Harry could not even hope to remember the name of, but those were few and far in between.

Then there was that small, bubbly first year Ravenclaw that literally sprang onto him one day in a corridor as he was on his way to the library. Her dark blonde hair was tickling in his face and her porcelain skin made a stark contrast to his amber one.

“Err, hello?”

“Hello Harry Potter. The Gurgling Hunkifings were telling me that you looked sad, so I came to tell you that I don’t think you could ever do something this horrible.”

And boy, hearing that did cheer Harry up. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Speaking with snakes is not actually a problem, if you ask me. When my Daddy and I were in India last summer and we met a really nice family that had the ability.” She let go of the Gryffindor and studied him, her head angled slightly. “You do look quite a bit like a few of them, perhaps you’re related…”

It took Harry a few seconds to process what you just had said. “You think so?” Blood family other than the Dursleys was something he had not dared to hope for in the past seven or so  years.

“I don’t know. I can ask Daddy if he still has their address if you want.”

Harry nodded. “That would be really nice.”

“I will do that then. Did you know you could speak to snakes before? Because you looked really shocked.”

Harry scratched the back of his head. “Sort of…? I mean, I had a conversation with a Boa Constrictor once, I hope he made it to Brazil?”

“He sounds nice,” she commented absently, as if her mind was somewhere else. Maybe she was imagining the scene; Harry certainly would in her position

“He was. Polite too.” He grinned at the memory that had followed. The punishment had not been fun, but he had loved those few seconds. It wasn’t often that Dudley was the one humiliated and for it to happen on the pig’s birthday—priceless.

Luna smiled at him. “And you didn’t think that was weird at all?”

“I thought that Parseltongue was just something that a lot of wizards can do.”

“Really? You believed that?!” Luna broke out laughing, but it wasn’t a cruel laugh. It was more innocent than that, like the laughter between George and Fred when they teased each other, almost.

“Hey! How was I to know any better? I didn’t even know I was a wizard yet when that happened!”

“You make a good point.” Then she blinked a few times. “Oh dear, I seem to have caught a  Nargle. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Luna. Luna Lovegood.”

“Hey Luna. My name’s Harry.”

“I know,” she replied as she took his outstretched hand.

Harry shook his head. “You know Harry Potter. I would like you to meet Harry.”

“Okay then, Harry.”

They simply stood there for a moment or two until Harry remembered what he had been doing before.

“I’m sorry, but Ron’s waiting for me. Maybe we can talk again another time?”

“Sure, Harry. I’ll be on my way then. I have a letter to write, after all,” Luna smiled at him a last time and skipped away.

He had a dreamy smile on his face when he entered the library.

“Hey mate, are you okay?” Ron questioned.

“Yes, I am. I simply made a new friend.”

Harry treasured each and every new friend he made and he always would. Everything else could be in smoking ruins, with friends everything would turn out well.


	2. they got my back

Hermione Granger was no fool. She knew that being betrayed by a friend was just about the worst thing that could happen to Harry right now.   
And when Ron had told her of Harry’s odd behaviour the day before, she took it upon herself to investigate.   
She didn’t want to prevent Harry from making his own friends, she simply wanted to protect him, because that was what friends did, wasn’t it?

Hermione recruited Fred and George to help her distract the boys long enough for her to slip away quietly. If all worked well, she’d be back before they knew it and if it didn’t, she could always claim to have been in the library.

It was not like they would not believe her. Running off to the library was a habit of hers.

They were sitting in the common room on a Saturday morning and both Harry and Ron were finishing the rest of their homework—and Harry only had a Transfiguration essay to finish while Ron still had to start that one and was currently stuck in the Herbology one—when she spotted one of the twins giving her the sign they had agreed on.

Hermione didn’t know how Harry managed to tell them apart. She had tried countless of times, only to be proven wrong every time she thought she had finally gotten the hang of it,-

But there was no point in dwelling on this particular topic right now. She had other things to do.

The twins moved over in their direction and began to talk loudly about the next prank they were planning and how they needed the help of the boys.

On her way out, she was interrupted by Neville.

“Hello, Hermione! I wanted to ask you if you could give me a few pointers for the essay in Potions.”

That’s right, she had told him he could ask her for help.”

“I’m really sorry, Neville, but there is something that I need to do right now. Think you can wait for me? Or you could ask Percy for help, if it’s a bit more urgent?”

Neville shook his head. “I will wait for you if it won’t take long.”

“It won’t! I promise, but I really have to go! I’ll be back soon!” she apologized.

Hermione waited for him to nod before she turned around and left the common room.

Now it was time to find Luna Lovegood

The first place she looked was the library, but she didn’t find the Ravenclaw there, so she looked in the Great Hall, but she was not to be found there either.

Just as Hermione was trying to think of another place Lovegood could be—excluding the Ravenclaw common room, because she did not know where that was—she heard a dreamy voice behind her.

“Hello. I heard that you were looking for me?”

Hermione flinched—she had not expected anyone to address her—and spun around. She was faced with a pale girl with dark blonde hair. Her wand was on one of her ears and she was wearing a really weird necklace. Were that corks?

She tried to clear her head by shaking it slightly.   
“Assuming you are Luna Lovegood, yes. But how did you hear of that?” She had only told the Weasley Twins of her plan.

“Oh here and there.”

A few seconds of silence passed.

“Why do you want to speak with me?” Lovegood asked. Her voice was a tiny bit more focused now.

Hermione swallowed. “Do you really believe Harry is innocent or is this simply part of an elaborate scheme?”

The first year was mustering the brick pattern of the wall as she replied. “There is a high infection of Wrackspurts among those who believe such lies.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”   
“I was not aware that such a reply would adequately answer your question.”

The Gryffindor thought about how exactly she had worded her inquiry. “Okay, you’re right. But you still didn’t answer my question. And what are Wrackspurts?”

“They are invisible creatures that could people’s thoughts,” Lovegood replied as she absently looked around the corridor. “My father writes all about them in  _ The Quibbler _ .”

Hermione frowned. “I’ve never heard of them.”

“Many people don’t believe they exist,” the Ravenclaw replied in a dreamy voice. “But they are wrong. Just like those who think Harry guilty are wrong. Humans are often reluctant to believe in something until they have proof, but my father is not one of them. He taught me to trust my instincts and not simply trust what others tell me. My instincts—and the Gurgling Hunkifings, too—tell me that Harry is not guilty. Does this answer your question?” Lovegood—Luna—slowly grew more focused during her little speech. By the end of it, she looked Hermione directly in the eyes.

“Yes, I believe it is. Thank you, Luna.”

“You’re welcome.”

As Hermione returned to the common room, she couldn’t help but think that the Ravenclaw might be onto something.


	3. and i got yours

Harry was fairly sure that no one would disagree when he called the Weasleys an amazing family, except maybe someone the likes of the Dursleys or Malfoy.

That, however, did in no way mean that they didn’t have faults.

Ron, for example, felt like he would always be overshadowed by his brothers, so there was no point to even try. And his obvious distaste for Slytherins, even if that seemed understandable when one didn’t look too close.

Things like Mrs. Weasley taking the time to knit him a jumper as well every Christmas — that took a lot of time, Harry knew that because it had taken Aunt Petunia ages to do one for Dudley when they had been small and the volume of his current one should roughly be equal to Harry’s current form — usually evened things out, but there were a few things that truly bothered Harry one he spent some time thinking about it.

“Oh, come, loosen up, Perce! No one likes it when people are being so stiff, have some fun every once in a while!” George groaned as Percy came down to the common room with some work during one of the first mornings of the winter holidays, instead of playing Exploding Snap with his brothers and Harry.

Like this, for example.

It really made Harry feel more than uncomfortable, how much the treatment Percy got from his younger brothers reminded Harry of the way the Dursleys had treated him. Like all of his insides were becoming at least twice the weight they normally had, like someone was trying to make him eat something that smelled horrible.

It had taken Harry a while to work up the courage, but Harry had finally managed to do that  — through the wonderful help of his friends — to stand up to them, ironically enough the very people that helped him.

“That’s not very nice, George,” he said, hopefully sounding more confident than he felt right now.

“What are you talking about, Harry?” Fred questioned. “We’re just having fun and Percy was being a spoilsport.”

George and Ron both nodded in a agreement. It was only then that Harry noticed he had no idea where Ginny was, but decided to postpone that.

“And you can continue playing the game, no one’s saying anything against that,” Harry reminded them. “But don’t be mean to your brother while doing it.”

Percy looked at Harry in wonder, like he couldn’t quite believe that this was actually happening, which strengthened Harry’s resolve to keep going with this.

The other Weasleys, however, just looked at Harry in confusion.

“That wasn’t mean,” George argued. “Percy knows it’s just good hearted brotherly banter.”

“Does he though? Does he?” Harry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, I am really sorry, I really wanted to avoid this comparison, but you’re kind of reminding me of Dudley with this. Or Malfoy.”

That caused the other boys to cause their game. It was obvious that they were deeply offended by the comparison and while Harry felt incredibly guilty about it it was the truth and had to be brought to their attention before it got worse.

“What do you mean?” Ron questioned. He was shaking ever so slightly. It was easy to miss, but Harry had trained himself to notice such things.

“You don’t have to, Harry, really,” Percy tried to stop him. Perhaps he didn’t want them fighting, perhaps it was something else.

And yeah, he was right. Harry didn’t have to.

But he wanted to.

“You keep dismissing Percy, just because he’s different. And maybe you mean well, maybe you intend it as jokes, but  _ that doesn’t mean it is received that way _ . I don’t know if Bill and Charlie also did this, but regardless, making your brother feel like he doesn’t belong  _ is not what family is supposed to do _ .” Harry takes a deep breath. He needs that break, because otherwise he may start crying. “You’ve been granted such an amazing family and I don’t understand why on earth you could possibly want to ruin it. Because that’s what you’re doing. People want to belong somewhere,  _ I know that from experience _ , and if you don’t make Percy feel welcome, he’s gonna find another place eventually. And you can’t possibly tell me that you actually want to lose him.”

It feels good to have said this, looking at Percy who returns the look with a kind of admiration — that is somehow completely different than the looks he used to get from the other students before this whole Parselmouth mess — makes it worth it even more.

“Have we really made you feel like that, Perce?” Fred questions quietly. His tone is somewhere between disbelief and shame.

Percy doesn’t say anything, but the way he looks down is more than enough of an answer.

“Sweet Merlin, I never realized that!” George exclaimed in shocked horror. “We’ve been doing that all this time and didn’t even realize it.”

“It’s okay,” Percy tried to dismiss the whole thing, but Ron interrupted him. “No it bloody well is not. And I’m so sorry for doing this.”

“We’ll finish this game, then we’ll switch to something quieter,” Harry proposed. “I know one or two Muggle games you may be interested in, Percy, and if not, you can just do your work while we do something not too loud. Does that sound like a plan?”

He was glad to receive nods all around.


End file.
